The Chairman Truck: San Francisco Street Bao
You might not remember this, but San Francisco's Chairman Bao Bun Truck really stuck in the craw of onetime New York City restaurateur turned food and pop culture commentator Eddie Huang. Apparently, it was a bit much that another business serving Asian food took the word "bao" and deigned use it in the name of their food truck. "I'm 28 years old, I opened the restaurant last year, I did it all with my own money," Huang told SF Weekly's BuzzMachine. "Street trucks are like independent businesses, many times ethnic. To co-opt something like this reeks of corporations." Then he started talking about suing them, too. If that's the case, Roy Choi should basically have sued every food truck across the country.
Regardless, the Chairman Bao Bun Truck did change its name to "The Chairman" (won't that upset Food Network's Iron Chef somersault personality Mark Dacascos?), and still draws lines for its simple menu of steamed and baked buns, which are known for having featured pork belly with pickled daikon, crispy garlic tofu with miso greens, red sesame chicken with pickled carrots and cucumber.
Arthur Bovino is The Daily Meal's executive editor. Follow Arthur on Twitter.